Bucks author releases new book about Black and Asian cricketers in England

While other authors have looked at individual tours or players, Beyond the Pale is the first study to look at the impact of these pioneering players in its entirety.

Andy Carter’s first job was as a cricket scorer. His career has involved stints as an archaeologist, benefits clerk, musician and data architect.

Initially educated at UCNW Bangor, he returned to study with a Masters at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is currently studying for a PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University.

This new book documents how attitudes changed, for better and worse, over a ninety-year period. It shows how successive waves of players from Britain’s colonies not only changed the game of cricket but helped shape emerging national identities at home and pave the way for multi-culturalism in the UK.

Along the way we meet devious diplomats, pretentious princes and destitute drunkards.

Among the heroes are the flamboyant Ranjitsinhji, arguably the world’s most popular cricketer at the start of the 20th century, and Learie Constantine, who while he never played for a first-class county nevertheless became England’s highest paid sportsman and the first Afro-Caribbean member of the House of Lords.

The villains include Lord Harris, who ruled India and the MCC with a rod of iron, and the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram who almost wrecked India’s chances of being taken seriously as a test playing nation.